Saving Innocence
by XLoveXFallsXToXAshesX
Summary: She was the good girl with innocence. He was a bad-ass without a care. An accidental meeting may the change they both need. She needs freedom, and he needs a second chance. ItaSaku.
1. Prolouge

**Prologue **

**She was the innocent, good-girl, outcast sophomore of the school. He was the anti-social, bad-ass, heartthrob senior of the entire school. She had goals and dreams of law school. He amused himself with getting by day by day. An accidental meeting may change their lives forever. Can she be the guidance he needs to change his life around, and he the key to freedom she never tasted? ItaSaku**


	2. Chapter 2

_Although it's difficult today to see beyond the sorrow,_

_May looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow._

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, which is probably a good thing, too.**

* * *

_Chapter 1: _

It was particularly windy this afternoon for summer weather. While it was still hot, it was at least easy enough to walk outside without choking on the air. Which, the young twenty-three year old Uchiha was extremely grateful for. He couldn't stand to sit in his office much longer, less he lose his sanity with his co-workers. That brought him back to his thoughts of what _she _would say if she were here. He let out a breath. However, she wasn't. So, it was a moot point. That still didn't ease the guilt, though for everything he had, he should thank her.

"Itachi!" a familiar voice called out, breaking said male from his reverie of dead pleasantries. Turning around, he spotted a familiar mess of black hair walking towards him.

"Sasuke," he greeted, smiling slightly at his younger brother. Well, he didn't have _her_, but he did have one thing. His little brother. It made him eternally gracious to whatever higher power may have been watching him suffer for all those years, and finally give him solace.

His freshly high-school graduate brother, Sasuke, looked at him with curious eyes, noting his older brother's expression, and the flowers he held on his person. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together for the younger Uchiha.

"Are you going to visit her grave, then?" Sasuke asked his brother, while attempting to catch his breath. For a fleeting second, a flash of pain crossed Itachi's eyes before it was gone, "yes. It is her birthday after all." An understanding nod was given in response.

"Oh, yeah." There was an awkward pause before his little brother spoke again, "it's hard to believe it's been four years." Itachi didn't speak, merely kept his poker face. The only sign that he heard was the tightening of his fists. Sasuke hadn't known his brother for most of his life, and it bothered him, but he knew his brother loved this girl. It was just; he didn't know anything about her other than a name, and date of death. It wasn't easy watching his only remaining relative suffer like this.

"I'm sorry-" Itachi's look silenced him, "Please, don't Sasuke. It's hardly your fault." They looked away from each other, one towards the direction of the cemetery, the other towards the darkening sky. Was it natural for his brother to feel so much pain, after only knowing her for a year? He wasn't sure. Sasuke felt an incredible amount of sympathy at his brother's retreating form. He was heading to the cemetery.

They walked in silence; Itachi didn't protest to the company, and Sasuke didn't try to keep up conversation anymore. The two had rekindled their relationship - or the lack there of - in the past several years, catching up on all that had happened. Still, there were some things the elder brother remained adamant of discussing. This being one of them. Or perhaps, the girl would be a more appropriate way to address it. In a way, Sasuke didn't want to address it. However, his brother had to get over it sometime. As he had learned through his psychology classes, internalizing could lead to mental breakdowns of the worse kind.

The cemetery wasn't much further, and as they proceeded through the many graves, a fleeting thought came to Sasuke before he halted it and continued on. The brothers stopped at a rather neat grave under the cherry blossom tree. Many had fallen to scatter around the grave. The epitaph was trimly engraved, with the name Haruno Sakura in bold letters, staring back at the both of them. Itachi looked on with regret and remorse. She was one of a kind, he thought with a cynical twitch of his lips. Only she could bring out these feelings in him. When no one else could.

Itachi had lost everything, and felt nobody could ever give him the things he had always desired most, but _she _did. Because of her - because she sacrificed _her _life - he was rekindled with his brother, and the man who had taken away everything from him, was behind bars for the rest of his mundane and pathetic life. It was the price he - _she _- had to pay, but despite the fact that he missed her dearly, he couldn't bring himself to regret Sasuke. His little brother, the person he loved more than anything, nearly equal to Sakura.

Without a thought he put the flowers on her grave. _Happy Birthday, my dear. _

Her smiled flashed across his mind and it too all of his will not to break down then and there. He wouldn't though; Sasuke would never see him in that state.

Sasuke stared at his brother with an expression of sorrow. He didn't want his brother to continue on like this. It was then; he decided he would talk to his brother tonight. If his brother got it off his chest, maybe he would feel slightly better about it. It was a risk, but it was worth the shot - no pun intended, he thought looking at his brother's lover's grave.

They stood there, standing - Itachi reminiscent, and Sasuke curious.

By the time the sun started to set, Sasuke spoke, "Aniki, why don't we head home? You look like you could use the rest and I want to talk to you, about something."

There was a long silence before his brother spoke, "Very well."

They arrived at their rather large house, not too much later. Slinging their jackets over the coat rack, they moved to Itachi's study.

"What is it, Sasuke?" His brother was obviously not in the mood to talk, but with as much confidence as he could muster, Sasuke grabbed a chair. He sighed, nervous on how to begin.

"Itachi, I think we should talk…about her." He didn't want to say her name aloud, knowing it was taboo. Besides, maybe starting off respecting that might help his case.

Itachi visibly stiffened, "Is that so?"

"Please, aniki. You really need to get this out of your system. If you continue to hold her inside like this, it would kill you-"

"Sasuke, I understand your concern but I am not one of your patients and she-"

"Is off limits, I know! But-"

"But, nothing-"

"What would she say now? If she saw the way you are now?"

Itachi didn't interrupt, and Sasuke knew that he knew he was right. Sakura would scold him, and tell him he was being stupid, and stubborn. She would tell him to talk to her, tell her what was wrong. She always tried to placate his temper and his sorrow.

"What do you want to know Sasuke?"

Sasuke visibly sagged in relief.

"Start from the beginning. How did you two meet?"

He watched as his older brother cracked a smile. Sasuke eyed him suspiciously, "What? Was it love at first sight or something?"

Then, further scaring his brother, Itachi let out a low chuckle, "Hardly." Before Sasuke could speak, he was talking again.

"She was two grades lower than the one I had been in, but she was so remarkably smart that she was in many of the classes I had. We hadn't even met until halfway through my senior year…."

x0x0x0x

Haruno Sakura was in a hurry. She could not be late to class; it would be absolutely detrimental to her in the long run. She may be only a sophomore in high school but she the program she was in allowed her to take classes at a senior level. Her intelligence was high, but that didn't mean she was able to slack off on attendance. This was a private school after all. A 'prestigious' one at that. Even the point-one percent that failed made the school's hackles rise. She refused to fall to a statistic.

She was not so lucky. Her teachers gave her no extra privileges even though she was on scholarship and when she didn't make it in time, was promptly sent to the office for a pass - and probably a lecture. "This is a great school; you can't screw it up, slack off, blah blah blah…." Now, she was upset about this, but she wasn't that typical person to cry whenever she got in trouble. All it did was made it harder for her to 'watch her mouth.' However, she was smart enough to stay quiet and behave, do her work, a typical role-model. Or more appropriately she was, as her fellow classmates put it, a geek.

It was not such a depressing fact; she was 'used' to it. Life was what it was. Which speaking of, was rather dull until today that is.

Her tolerance for people was little, everyone was aware. That's why when group-assignments came up Sakura threw her hands in the air and made sure it was known she would rather work alone. That was, of course, only the past several years of her education that she gotten by with that. It seemed, though, after walking into her advanced philosophy class, despite her protests, she would be stuck with a partner. Just her luck, it seemed.

"Now Haruno, listen here." Her sensei was attempting to use his authority over her, by talking to her on an interpersonal level. Simple English? He was threatening her grade, despite her capacity to finish a two-partner long term assignment on her own in less than two weeks. Which, probably meant she was stuck on babysitting slash tutoring a student who royally didn't give a _damn_?

She strongly resisted the temptation to roll her eyes, "…I'm aware of your exceptional work….student….help."

"Sir, could they not just complete this on their own? This is a college-level class. I don't need help-"

"I'm sorry I have not made myself clear, but this is about your partner's grade. This student is highly intelligent but he" - wait, _he_? - "lacks the motivation to complete his assignments. Surely, you can help him see reason. This _is _a philosophy class, and he needs this grade to graduate."

Sakura wished she had stayed in bed this morning. She knew this scenario. The lucky guy would get stuck with the smart girl who would do all the work, he'd walk with the credit, and she'd be the fool who helped him get by.

"But-"

"Ah! There he is," her sensei smiled ignoring her protests, "Uchiha, a moment?"

So lost in her irritation, she almost didn't hear correctly. "I'm sorry, did you say Uchiha?" She looked hopeful at the man who was in control of her grade. He gave her an oddly bemused gaze, "Yes, I did." Sakura glared as the very Uchiha Itachi took his place by her side across from the teacher.

Before the young - dark and handsome, she admitted regrettably - student could speak, Sakura burst out, "You must be joking. Sensei, he's a _freaking _genius. He doesn't need my help." This wasn't far from the truth. Yes, he may be lazy. But she knew the rumors. His test scores were insanely high; the standards hadn't been like that since that indolent boy Nara Shikamaru had passed through here. However, genius or not, she was not going to sit there and help him get something he could easily achieve through effort.

Said student simply raised a brow, "The pleasure is mine, surely…." Their sensei rushed in not even put off by the Uchiha's sarcasm, "Her name is Haruno Sakura, and she will be your partner for this project, Uchiha. I want you to put some actual effort into this. You need this grade. No buts. That's final. You two have the rest of the semester to finish it."

With that, the two were left alone. The tension and silence were palpable and Sakura's nerves were just about fried by this point. Not only was she stuck with a partner she clearly didn't want, but it seemed he was obviously just as disinterested by this situation as he had been described.

"Uchiha-san." Charcoal eyes met her emerald ones. He raised a brow. _Not a talker, I see. _

"Our project…we have to choose a topic. We also need to find a person to research. Then incorporate one of their theories into a paper of our own."

He glanced at her momentarily before looking away, "Aa."

"Could you please speak more than one word-syllables? This project is a two person assignment." _Unfortunately. _The word was hanging over both of them and the tension thickened.

"You are free to choose, I have no preference." She was nearly close to choking him. Yes, she may be over-reacting. Yes, she may be a tiny bit mad, but she had to keep her grades up to stay in this school. Unlike him. He didn't understand, and his indifference was going to make her kill him, or worse, herself.

"Fine," she snapped, closing her books as the bell rang, and "I'll tell you who I chose tomorrow."

For his part, the lone Uchiha watched the riled female walk away in rage. It wasn't that her particularly cared that she was mad, as he himself didn't actually give much thought about the class, but he would not deny that it was amusing to watch her feathers ruffle.

With a twitch of his lips, he closed his books and left the classroom, following the rosette's suit.

x0x0x0x0x

The day was sluggish and dragged on, however, Sakura was quite under the impression there was nothing that would change that no matter what anyone said. Her day could not get better even if her parents decided to come home early and cook her favorite dish and sweets. She could also go on about how even without homework, she would probably still complain about how unhappy she was with the situation.

It wasn't that Sakura was particular against people; she just didn't like being taken advantage of. It was on of her pet-peeves ever since she was a child and tried impressing girls she wanted to make friends with by letting them cheat off her test. In the end, she became the accused and was embarrassed all for wanting to 'fit in.' That was not something she would let happen again. Especially not from some snobby, stuck-up rich boy who was probably more intelligent than most of the school combined.

Despite her current irritations, she couldn't help but hear her voice of reason, or 'Inner Me' as she called long ago, telling her to suck it up and deal. That was a typical solution to many problems, not always fool-proof, but hey, it kept her out of trouble most of the time. Not just that, but that _philosophy_ kept her from saying something incredibly rash and impulsive to people on a day-to-day basis. Not that it was her fault; she had always been told she took after her mother.

Walking home was probably the highlight of her day considering kami didn't let it rain. She smirked at her thoughts, thinking she couldn't be more sarcastic of a person. No wonder teachers never paired her up with others in the past. It would have been pointless even if the goal was to work on people skills. It was all fine though, she only had one person she wanted to use those skills for.

She checked the mail, grimacing at the name – a constant reminder of how 'lucky' she was. _Kato. _Not her name, never hers. It wasn't a known fact that she was not really this couple's child; they had a reputation, after all. It was just, it was much easier and more scandalous gossip to believe she was an illegitimate child, or some other nonsense like that.

Oh, yes, her deep dark secret. Haruno Sakura was adopted sixteen years ago, and wasn't able to look for her mother until she was of age.

"Momma," Sakura called out to an empty house. With a sigh, she put down her books and started her homework.

Did she fail to mention that her foster parents also had an odd tendency to have high expectations and were upon occasion, workaholics?

...

_Just great_. A perfect ending to a _perfect_ day.

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**Authors Note: I apologize that I had not one, updated sooner. Two, I'm sorry it's so short. I really had run out of thoughts and got the main point out of the way. Despite the fact that it seems Itachi is telling the story, doesn't mean Sakura's perspective isn't in here. Think of it like dramatic irony, I guess. Even if that doesn't make sense, I suppose. Anyway, please review, give advice, that stuff. Good, bad? I know this was mostly Sakura-centric but the next chapter will be more interactions between the two, I promise.**


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